Last quarter, Google roared out of the post-pandemic-peak period with a record $17.9 billion in profit, finally joining other tech giants that had been raking it in despite (or perhaps because of) the rise of COVID-19. But Alphabet’s Q2 2021 earnings do it one better — the company just set an all-time record revenue of $61.9 billion this quarter, and set record profits for the third quarter in a row. Many of the numbers the company’s posting today (PDF) are nearly double those it reported a year ago.
Google search appears to be the big driver, shooting up over $14 billion since this time last year to $35.8 billion total (that’s nearly $4 billion higher than it did last quarter as well). YouTube advertising revenue grew tremendously as well, nearly doubling to $7 billion, compared to $3.8 billion last year. That’s $1 billion more than YouTube pulled in last quarter. The company also says its YouTube Shorts have been a huge success, hitting 15 billion global daily views (up from 6.5 billion in March).
One big question was whether this would be the quarter Alphabet’s fast-growing Google Cloud business would stop hemorrhaging cash, after the bleeding slowed to just under a billion in Q1. While the division still isn’t profitable, Q2 shows it only lost $591 million, as it grew revenue from $4 billion last quarter to $4.6 billion this one. (Cloud did $3 billion last year.)
Google’s second quarter revenue:
2021: $61.9 billion
2020: $38.3 billion
2019: $38.9 billion
2018: $32.7 billion
2017: $26.0 billion
2016: $21.5 billion
2015: $17.7 billion
2014: $15.9 billion
2013: $13.1 billion
2012: $11.8 billion
2011: $9.0 billion
2010: $6.8 billion— Jon Erlichman (@JonErlichman) July 27, 2021
Wondering how Google’s hardware business is doing ahead of a possible new Pixel 6 Pro and maybe a new stab at smartwatches later this year? Unfortunately, Google doesn’t break out hardware numbers yet, but there is a “Google other” category which includes other items as well. It’s now pulling in $6.6 billion in revenue, up from $5.1 billion a year ago.
On the call, Google CBO Philipp Schindler suggested the high numbers were due to consumer spending — as has been the story for a while now, the pandemic has contributed to a huge surge in shopping, and as a giant advertiser, Google’s benefitting from it.
Developing…